Control pedals are typically provided in a motor vehicle, such as an automobile, which are foot operated by the driver. Separate control pedals are provided for operating vehicle brakes and an engine throttle. When the motor vehicle has a manual transmission, a third control pedal is provided for operating a transmission clutch. A front seat of the motor vehicle is typically mounted on tracks so that the seat is forwardly and rearwardly adjustable along the tracks to a plurality of positions so that the driver can adjust the seat to the most advantageous position for working a steering wheel, the control pedals on other control devices of the motor vehicle.
This adjustment method of moving the front seat along the tracks generally fills the need to accommodate drivers of various size, but it raises several concerns. First, this adjustment method still may not accommodate all drivers due to very wide differences in anatomical dimensions of drivers. Second, the resulting position of the seat may still be uncomfortable for some drivers. Therefore, it is desirable to have an additional or alternate adjustment method for accommodating drivers of various size.
Many proposals have been made to selectively adjust the position of the control pedals relative to the steering wheel and the front seat in order to accommodate drivers of various size. While these adjustable control pedals may adequately adjust the position of the control pedal to accommodate drivers of various size, these adjustable control pedals may be unreliable, noisy and expensive to produce. Additionally, these adjustable control pedals may require expensive sensors or switches in order to maintain a desired positional relationship between the pedals at all positions. Furthermore, many of these adjustable control pedals are not easily customized to meet varying vehicle or floor pan requirements. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved adjustable control pedal assembly which selectively adjusts the position of the pedal to accommodate drivers of various size.